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TRUTH  AND  FALSE- 
HOOD ABOUT  KOREA 
MISSIONARIES 

By 

ARTHUR  JUDSON  BROWN,  D.D., 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church 

{The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
r’-esbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S A., 
J 56  Fifth  A venue,  New  York. 

Truth  and  Falsehood  About 
Korea  Missionaries. 

By  Arthur  J.  Brown,  D.D. 

Any  one  who  has  visited  Korea  or  is  ac- 
quainted with  even  the  A B Cs  of  the  situa- 
tion there  will  read  with  curious  interest  Mr. 
Angus  Hamilton’s  book,  “ Korea.”  The  reader 
notes  that  the  author  criticizes  pretty  nearly 
everybody  and  everything.  He  is  plainly  anti- 
American  and  he  loses  no  opportunity  to  sneer 
at  everything  American,  not  even  excepting 
our  excellent  United  States  Minister  Allen, 
whom  I personally  know  to  be  a man  of  high 
character  and  sound  judgment.  Mr.  Hamilton 
tells  us  that  he  “ found  fleas  and  bugs  in  the 
houses  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  unfortu- 
nately less  amenable  to  such  treatment  (fresh 
mint)  than  any  I came  across  in  Korea.” 
This  is  a refreshing  bit  of  naivete.  Visitors  in 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  who  are  obliged  to 
stop  at  a class  of  houses  that  abound  with 
“ fleas  and  bugs  ” do  not  usually  care  to  adver- 
tise the  fact  in  print.  Mr.  Hamilton  must 
have  had  very  poor  letters  of  introduction. 

He  abuses  the  Japanese  without  stint,  de- 
claring that  they  “ commit,  social  and  adminis- 


trative  excesses  of  the  most  detestable  char- 
acter;” that  ‘‘their  extravagant  arrogance 
blinds  them  to  the  absurdities  and  follies  of 
their  actions,  making  manifest  the  fact  that 
their  gloss  of  civilization  is  the  merest  ve- 
neer;” that  “their  conduct  in  Korea  shows 
them  to  be  destitute  of  moral  and  intellectual 
fibre;”  that  “they  are  debauched  in  business, 
and  the  prevalence  of  dishonorable  practices 
in  public  life  makes  them  indifferent  to  private 
virtue;”  that,  they  are  sunk  in  “commercial 
and  social  degradation;”  that  “their  sense  of 
power  is  tempered  neither  by  reason,  justice 
nor  generosity ; ” that  “ their  existence  from 
day  to  day,  their  habits  and  their  manners, 
there  commercial  and  social  degradation,  com- 
plete an  abominable  travesty  of  the  civili- 
zation which  they  profess  to  have  studied;” 
that  “ the  Japanese  merchant  is  a rowdy,” 
and  the  Japanese  coolie  “ impudent,  violent, 
and,  in  general,  an  outcast  more  prone  to  steal 
than  to  work.”  He  even  reviles  his  own  coun- 
trymen and  nation,  affirming  that  British  mer- 
chants are  characterized  by  “ apathetic  indif- 
ference;” that  the  British  “no  longer  show 
the  enterprise  and  initiative  which  formerly 
distinguished  us;”  that  “we  are  no  longer  the 
pioneers  of  commerce,  nor  have  we  the  capaci- 
ty and  courage  of  our  forefathers.”  And  he 
ridicules  “ the  follies  of  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment, the  unreasoning  prejudices  and  foolish 
blundering  of  the  Foreign  Office,”  “ the  drift- 


4 


ing  and  vacuous  policy  of  Lord  Salisbury,” 
and  concludes  his  tirade  by  declaring  that  “ it 
seems  almost  as  if  the  British  merchant  were  so 
bent  upon  his  own  damnation  that  little  could 
be  done,”  and  that  “ unintelligible  inaction 
characterizes  British  policy  there  as  else- 
where.” 

But  oddly  enough,  the  man  who  could  see 
little  of  the  actual  good  in  Americans, 
Japanese  and  British,  saw  in  Korea  a gro- 
tesquely exaggerated  good.  He  makes  the 
extraordinary  assertion  that  filthy  Seoul  is 
“ neat  and  orderly,”  with  “ streets  clean 
and  well  drained,”  and  that  “ evil  odors 
have  fled;”  that  straggling  Chemulpo  has 
“ imposing  shops  ” and  a “ magnificent  bund;” 
that  Korea,  “ once  the  least  progressive 
of  the  countries  of  the  Far  East,  now 
affords  an  exception  almost  as  noticeable  as 
that  shown  by  the  prompt  assimilation  of 
Western  ideas  and  methods  by  Japan;”  that 
Korea  is  “two  hundred  miles”  from  Japan; 
that  while  the  passage  across  the  Korean 
Strait  requires  “ fifteen  hours,”  the  trip  from 
Fusan  to  Moji  can  be  made  in  “four  hours;” 
that  the  cost  of  the  journey  (from  Moscow  to 
Dalny  by  the  Siberian  Railway)  is  almost  pro- 
hibitive, if  compared  with  ocean  steamer 
charges;”  and  that  several  other  statements 
are  true,  which  any  one  who  has  been  in  Korea 
will  read  in  Mr.  Hamilton’s  book  with  gasps 
of  amazement. 


5 


By  the  time  the  intelligent  reader  has  reached 
the  chapter  on  “ the  missionary  question,”  his 
confidence  in  the  author’s  trustworthiness  has 
become  considerably  shaken,  and  he  is  there- 
fore not  surprised  to  find  this  important  sub- 
ject discussed  in  a way  that  reveals  remarka- 
ble vastness,  variety  and  profoundity  of  preju- 
dice and  misinformation.  He  begins  by  severe- 
ly criticizing  the  French  Roman  Catholic 
priests  for  their  “ unnecessary  sacrifices.” 
He  says  that  they  “live  in  abject  poverty;” 
that  “ they  promote  anarchy  and  outrage, 
even  encompassing  their  own  deaths,  whenever 
the  interests  of  their  country  demand  it;” 
that  “ they  have  wooed  the  glory  of  martyr- 
dom;” that  “the  diffusion  of  Christianity  (by 
them)  is  not  unattended  with  bloodshed  and 
disaster;”  that  “in  the  case  of  Quelpart  this 
feeling  of  animosity  and  the  immunity  from 
taxation,  which  the  French  priests  gave  to 
their  followers,  created  an  intolerable  posi- 
tion;” that  in  consequence  “anarchy  swept 
over  the  island  and  some  six  hundred  believers 
were  put  summarily  to  death;”  and  that 
“ whatever  may  be  the  compensating  advan- 
tages of  this  martyrdom,  the  reckless  and 
profligate  sacrifice  of  life  which  missionary  in- 
discretion in  the  Far  East  has  promoted  is  an 
outrage  upon  modern  civilization.” 

Having  thus  paid  his  respects  to  the  French 
Roman  Catholic  priests,  and  to  everybody  else 
in  sight,  he  calmly  proceeds  to  criticize  the 


6 


Protestant  missionaries  because  their  “ com- 
fortable existence  ” does  not  equal  the  “ self- 
abnegation  so  manifest  in  the  lives  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  priests.”  Mr.  Hamilton  ap- 
pears to  be  a difficult  man  to  please. 

MISSIONARY  SALARIES. 

He  expresses  the  remarkable  opinion  that 
the  Protestant  missionaries  are  “well  paid;” 
that  “ as  a class  American  missionaries  have 
large  families,  who  live  in  comparative  idle- 
ness and  luxury;”  that  “they  own  the  most 
attractive  and  commodious  houses  in  the  for- 
eign settlements  and  appear  to  extract  from 
their  surroundings  the  maximum  of  profit  for 
the  minimum  of  labor.” 

As  a matter  of  fact,  the  salary  of  the  aver- 
age Protestant  missionary  in  Korea  is  about 
$600  a year  with  free  rent  and  an  allowance  of 
$100  for  a child.  An  additional  $600  is  paid 
to  a wife,  because  prior  to  appointment,  the 
Board  made  careful  inquiry  as  to  her  qualifi- 
cations for  missionary  service,  and  sent  her  to 
the  field  not  simply  because  she  was  a wife, 
but  because  she  was  expected  to  do  special 
work  among  women  and  children. 

As  to  whether  a missionary  can  live  in 
“ luxury  ” on  $600  for  a single  man,  or  $1,200 
for  a married  man  with  free  rent  and  an  al- 
lowance of  $100  for  a child,  the  people  of  this 
country  can  judge  as  well  as  Air.  Hamilton  by 
simply  asking  themselves  what  scale  of  living 


such  an  income  would  permit  in  the  United 
States.  Korea  does  not  produce  the  kinds  of 
food  and  clothing  that  an  American  has  to  use, 
and  the  missionary  must  buy  in  the  United 
States  at  the  same  price  that  the  average 
American  at  home  pays,  and  in  addition  he 
must  pay  the  cost  of  freight  to  Korea.  True, 
he  can  purchase  some  of  his  supplies  at  a few 
foreign  stores  in  Korea  at  what  we  should  re- 
gard as  exorbitant  prices;  but  he  usually  finds 
it  cheaper  to  buy  his  food  and  clothing  in  New 
York,  Chicago  and  San  Francisco,  and  then 
pay  the  freight  on  them  to  Korea.  If  in  such 
circumstances  missionaries  with  “ large  fami- 
lies ” can  live  in  “ luxury  ” on  the  salary  they 
receive,  they  are  very  remarkable  financiers 
indeed. 

It  is  not  true,  as  Mr.  Hamilton  asserts, 
that  “ servants  are  provided  free,”  while  the 
vaunted  “ provision  for  the  education  of  the 
children  ” is  $50  a year,  and  that  is  paid  only 
when  the  child  is  in  America  and  both  parents 
are  on  the  field.  The  average  parent  in  the 
United  States  can  doubtless  give  Mr.  Hamilton 
some  valuable  information  as  to  whether  it  is 
possible  to  feed,  clothe,  and  educate  a child  on 
$100  a year  if  at  home,  or  $150  if  in  college, 
while  the  larger  the  family,  the  greater  the 
difficulty. 

I admit  that  the  salary  of  the  missionary  is 
adequate  to  his  support.  But  it  is  designed  to 
cover  only  his  reasonable  needs,  and  while 


8 


ministers  in  this  country  may  look  forward  to 
an  increase,  sometimes  to  large  figures,  the 
most  eminent  foreign  missionary  receives  the 
same  modest  stipend  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
Other  foreigners  in  Asia  are,  as  a rule,  paid 
far  more  liberally  than  missionaries.  Macau- 
lay’s words  are  as  true  of  Korea  as  of  India — 

“ All  English  labor  in  India,  from  the  labor 
of  the  Governor-General  and  the  Commander  - 
in-Chief,  down  to  that  of  a groom  or  a watch- 
maker, must  be  paid  for  at  a higher  rate  than 
at  home.  No  man  will  be  banished,  and  ban- 
ished to  the  torrid  zone,  for  nothing.  The  rule 
holds  good  with  respect  to  the  legal  profession. 
No  English  barrister  will  work  fifteen  thou- 
sand miles  from  all  his  friends,  with  the  ther- 
mometer at  ninety-six  in  the  shade,  for  the 
emoluments  which  will  content  him  in  cham- 
bers that  overlook  the  Thames.  Accordingly 
the  fees  at  Calcutta  are  about  three  times  as 
great  as  the  fees  of  Westminster  Hall;  and 
this,  though  the  people  of  India  are,  beyond 
all  comparison,  poorer  than  the  people  of  Eng- 
land.” 

Substantially  the  same  statements  might  be 
made  regarding  the  income  of  non-missionary 
foreigners  in  Korea.  But  missionaries  like 
the  Rev.  H.  G.  Underwood,  D.D.,  Dr.  O.  R. 
Avison,  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Moffett,  D.D.,  the  Rev. 
J.  S.  Gale,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  Graham  Lee,  D.D., 
and  dozens  of  other  distinguished  missionar- 
ies, who  could  have  commanded  large  salaries 


9 


if  they  had  stayed  in  America,  receive  simply 
the  ordinary  missionary  income. 

Nor  has  the  missionary  local  resource  like 
the  home  missionary.  He  cannot  accept  money 
from  native  Christians  for  his  personal  use 
without  exposing  himself  to  the  charge  of  mer- 
cenary motives  in  coming  among  them.  He 
must  be  able  to  say  to  them,  “ I seek  not  yours 
but  you.  ’ ’ Therefore  if  he  earns  money,  he 
turns  it  into  the  treasury  of  the  Board,  so 
careful  is  he  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of 
self-seeking. 

It  is  true  that  it  costs  more  to  maintain  the 
Protestant  missionary  than  to  maintain  the 
celibate  Roman  Catholic  priest;  but  Protes- 
tantism long  ago  decided  for  itself  the  ques- 
tion of  marriage  versus  celibacy,  and  I am  not 
afraid  that  the  sensible  people  of  the  United 
States  will  be  disposed  to  follow7  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton ’s  lead  in  condemning  the  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries in  Korea  for  any  such  reason.  I 
saw  a good  many  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
priests  in  Korea,  and  they  impressed  me  as 
being  quite  as  well  fed  and  clothed  as  the 
Protestant  missionaries,  and,  as  far  as  I could 
judge,  they  appeared  “ to  extract  from  their 
surroundings  ” quite  as  much  “ profit  ” for 
their  *■  labor  ” as  the  Protestant  missionaries. 


10 


MISSIONARY  HOUSES. 

As  for  houses,  the  missionaries  do  not  “ own 
the  most  attractive  and  commodious  houses  in 
the  foreign  settlements,”  as  Mr.  Hamilton  al- 
leges; nor  do  they  own  any  houses  at  all,  the 
houses  being  owned  by  the  mission  boards  and 
costing,  as  I have  occasion  to  know,  hut  a mod- 
est sum.  I have  seen  most  of  the  missionary 
houses  in  Korea.  Two  or  three  were  built  by 
wealthy  relatives  for  particular  missionaries, 
and  it  may  be  that  Mr.  Hamilton  had  these 
places  in  mind.  But  if  so,  he  should  have  been 
honest  enough  to  explain  that  they  are  excep- 
tions. Even  they,  however,  cost  only  about 
$3,000,  including  land,  while  the  average  mis- 
sionary residence  is  about  like  the  home  of  a 
country  clergyman  or  school  teacher  in  the 
United  States.  The  typical  Protestant  mis- 
sionary is  a man  of  education  and  refinement, 
and  his  wife  is  a woman  of  cultivation  and  good 
taste,  and  1 do  not  deny  that  their  dwelling 
often  appears  palatial  in  comparison  with  the 
wretched  hovels  in  which  the  natives  herd  like 
rabbits  in  a warren.  Shattered  health  and 
rapidly  filled  cemeteries  have  taught  mission- 
aries that  if  they  are  to  live  they  must  go  a 
little  apart  from  the  nasty,  malodorous,  un- 
sanitary, human  pigsty,  with  its  rotting  gar- 
bage and  open  cesspools,  select  a site  high 
enough  to  afford  natural  drainage,  and  build  a 
house  with  a sufficient  number  of  cubic  feet  of 
space  for  the  persons  who  are  to  occupy  it. 


11 


Then  the  natural  taste  of  the  American-bred 
husband  leads  him  to  make  a little  lawn  and 
set  out  a few  flowers,  while  indoors  his  wife 
sensibly  makes  everything  as  cozy  and  attrac- 
tive as  she  can  with  the  means  at  her  disposal. 
As  it  is  supposed  to  be  a home  for  life,  articles 
by  gift  and  purchase  are  gradually  accumulat- 
ed. It  really  becomes  a pretty  place  and  con- 
trasting as  it  does  with  the  miserable  habita- 
tions of  a heathen  city,  it  attracts  attention. 
But  its  attractiveness  is  not  due  to  the  lavish 
expenditure  of  money,  but  to  the  good  taste 
and  inventiveness  of  a cultivated,  intelligent 
family. 

MISSIONARIES  AND  BUSINESS. 

Mr.  Hamilton  alleges  that  “ American  mis- 
sionaries in  Korea  were  formerly  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  more  important  export  houses 
in  the  leading  industrial  centers  of  America.” 
He  is  careful  to  use  the  word  “ formerly,”  and 
he  also  tells  us  that  this  practice  is  “no 
longer  openly  indulged.”  He  insinuates,  how- 
ever^  that  such  business  interests  represent  the 
spirit  of  the  American  missionaries,  and  that 
they  would  be  continued  if  it  were  not  for 
“ diplomatic  representation.”  The  simple 
facts  are  that  when  the  first  missionaries  went 
to  Korea  they  found  a people  who  were  quite 
destitute  of  even  the  commonest  conveniences 
of  life  as  practiced  by  Americans.  Christian- 
ity means  much  in  civilization  as  well  as  in 


12 


religion.  To  change  a man’s  heart  and  to  give 
to  him  the  great  ideas  of  the  Gospel  are  ordin- 
arily to  beget  in  him  a desire  for  a higher  type 
of  physical  life.  It  was  quite  natural  that 
when  a Korean  caller  saw  the  clock  or  cook 
stove  or  sewing  machine  in  the  missionary’s 
house,  he  should  manifest  an  interest  and  ask 
the  missionary  to  get  him  one,  and  it  was 
equally  natural  that  the  missionary  should 
comply  with  the  request.  This  was  done  in 
some  instances  by  a very  few  of  the  missiona- 
ries. They  did  not  do  it,  however,  for  financial 
profit,  but  simply  out  of  kindly  interest  in  the 
people,  and  now  that  foreign  business  firms 
are  introducing  American  and  European 
goods,  the  missionaries  do  not  do  such  things 
at  all,  except  in  rare  individual  instances  as  a 
matter  of  personal  friendship,  or,  perhaps,  to 
prevent  an  extortionate  profit  by  some  unscru- 
pulous trader.  It  is  grossly  unjust  to  repre- 
sent all  the  Protestant  missionaries  in  Korea 
as  doing  any  thing  of  the  kind,  and  it  is  mali- 
cious to  charge  mercenary  motives  upon  a 
whole  body  of  self-denying  men  and  women 
simply  because  a half-dozen,  more  or  less,  gave 
such  assistance  as  has  been  indicated  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  work. 

Mr.  Hamilton  solemnly  declares  that  one  of 
the  missionaries  in  Won-san  has  an  “ or- 
chard,” and  that  another  in  Seoul  occasionally 
permits  a guest  to  pay  for  his  entertain- 
ment. These  are,  indeed,  awful  crimes.  I do 


13 


not  attempt  to  reply  to  such  charges,  as  words 
fail  me.  I understand  that  the  guilty  man 
who  committed  the  enormity  of  raising  a little 
fruit  does  not  sell  any  of  his  produce  and  that 
the  Seoul  missionary  host  merely  accepted  a 
compensation  that  was  thrust  upon  him  by 
a few  grateful  visitors  who  felt  that 
it  would  have  been  unjust  to  impose  on  the 
kindly  missionary  the  extra  cost  of  entertain- 
ing travellers  when  the  missionary’s  income 
was  known  to  be  barely  sufficient  for  the  needs 
of  his  own  family.  But,  of  course,  these  con- 
siderations do  not  atone  for  such  heinous  of- 
fences. Is  Mr.  Hamilton’s  virtuous  indigna- 
tion to  be  accounted  for  by  the  supposition 
that  the  Won-san  missionary  objected  to  hav- 
ing his  apples  stolen,  and  that  the  Seoul  fam- 
ily was  unwilling  to  make  their  home  an  ac- 
commodation place  for  an  unsympathetic  trav- 
eler who  wanted  to  quarter  himself  on  the 
missionary  when  he  should  have  gone  to  the 
hotel  ? 

He  asserts  that  “ there  are  few  foreigners 
( in  Korea ) , not  even  excepting  the  representa- 
tives of  the  very  miscellaneous  collection  of 
American  missionaries,  who  have  not  come  to 
Seoul  from  motives  of  self-interest.” 

We  have  no  objection  to  Mr.  Hamilton  ad- 
mitting the  self-evident  truth  that  he  was  in 
Korea  for  that  purpose,  but  we  decidedly  ob- 
ject to  his  classing  the  missionaries  in  the 
same  category.  What  possible  motive  of  self- 


14 


interest  could  induce  missionaries  to  reside 
permanently  in  such  a land?  Mr.  Hamilton 
intimates  that  he  himself  was  so  worn  and 
jaded  and  disgusted  by  what  he  had  endured 
during  his  short  residence  in  the  Land  of  the 
Morning  Calm  that  he  was  eager  to  leave,  and 
indeed,  that  he  was  compelled  to  do  so  by  ill 
health.  Why  should  missionaries  remain  not 
for  a short  period  only  but  for  a life  service, 
broken  only  by  an  occasional  furlough?  If 
they  are  as  good  business  men  as  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton appears  to  think,  they  could  certainly  do 
better  in  a financial  way  elsewhere,  and 
“ self-interest  ” would  doubtless  prompt  them 
to  try. 


MISSIONARY  IDLENESS. 

Tlie  charge  that  the  missionaries  do  “ the 
minimum  of  labor,”  and  that  their  families 
live  in  “ comparative  idleness,”  is  absurdly 
false.  Take,  for  example,  the  Presbyterian 
missionaries,  with  whom  the  writer  of  this  ar- 
ticle is  more  particularly  acquainted.  Seven- 
ty missionaries,  including  wives  and  mother" 
who  have  the  same  family  cares  that  such 
women  have  in  America,  have  charge  of  32.1 
congregations,  79  schools,  5 hospitals  and 
about  35,000  communicants  and  adherents.  I 
have  visited  Korea  and  I did  what  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton evidently  did  not  do,  take  pains  to  inspect 
the  missionary  work.  I have  seen  these  mis- 
sionaries, I know  what  they  are  doing,  and  I 


15 


can  testify  that  they  are  among  the  hardest- 
worked  men  and  women  in  the  world.  They 
are  literally  wearing  themselves  out  in  their 
efforts  to  found  and  maintain  churches, 
schools  and  hospitals,  and  to  create  in  a 
heathen  land  some  of  the  conditions  of  decent 
society. 

Few  mission  fields  in  all  the  world  present 
such  a record  of  achievement.  It  is  only  twen- 
ty years  since  the  first  Protestant  missionary 
entered  Korea — a solitary  physician  and  his 
wife — to  face  a nation  of  fifteen  millions  of 
people  who  were  deeply  rooted  in  the  grossest 
superstitions  and  degradations  of  age-old 
heathenism.  It  was  not  until  a year  later 
that  the  first  ordained  missionary  arrived  and 
not  till  within  the  last  decade  than  any  consid- 
erable re-enforcements  joined  them.  Even  now 
there  are  but  185  all  told,  including  wives, 
physicians,  teachers,  translators,  press-mana- 
gers, Bible  Society  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  representa- 
tives, and  all  who  are  absent  on  necessary  fur- 
lough or  sick  leave.  Each  hospital,  with  work 
enough  for  two  or  three  physicians,  has  but  one 
medical  missionary  and  he  must  perform  every 
operation  and  attend  every  sick  patient  with- 
out any  competent  assistants  or  trained 
nurses.  Each  school,  which  at  home  would 
have  several  American  teachers,  has  but  a sol- 
itary missionary.  As  for  ministers,  there  are 
not  as  many  in  all  Korea  as  there  are  in  the 
average  city  of  eighty  thousand  inhabitants 


16 


in  the  United  States.  Each  one  of  them 
is  preacher,  pastor,  Sunday-school  superinten- 
dent, architect,  builder  and  bishop  combined, 
with  a diocese  a hundred  miles,  more  or  less, 
in  extent,  and  whose  scattered  cities  and  vil- 
lages can  be  reached  only  by  toilsome  jour- 
neys in  regions  where  there  are  none  of  the 
conveniences  of  modern  transportation.  As  I 
know  from  my  owm  travels  with  them  in 
Korea,  the  missionaries  journey  through  heat 
and  cold  and  dust  and  mud,  burned  by  the 
midday  sun,  drenched  by  the  sudden  storms, 
eating  unaccustomed  food,  sleeping  on  the 
floor  in  vermin-infested  huts— enduring  every 
privation  incident  to  travel  in  an  uncivilized 
land — and  yet,  in  spite  of  it  all,  instructing 
native  helpers  and  church  officers,  settling  dis- 
putes, visiting  the  dying,  comforting  the  sor- 
rowing, and  above  all  and  in  all  preaching  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  They 
have  wrhat  James  Lane  Allen  calls  that  “ stark 
audacity  of  faith,”  that  “ burning  spiritual 
heroism,”  which  inspire  men  to  wander 
through  the  wilderness,  “ carrying  from  cabin 
to  cabin,  through  darkness,  and  snow  and 
storm,  the  lonely  banner  of  the  Christ,  and 
preaching  the  Gospel  of  everlasting  peace  to 
those  who  had  never  known  any  peace  on 
earth.” 

To  represent  such  men  and  women  as  living 
lives  of  ease  and  luxury  is  an  outrage,  not 
only  upon  truth,  but  upon  common  sense,  and 


17 


should  bring  upon  the  critic  the  indignant 
contempt  of  every  right-thinking  man  and 
woman. 

HOW  MISSIONARIES  ARE 
SELECTED. 

There  is  no  other  class  in  the  world  more 
carefully  selected  than  the  Protestant  foreign 
missionaries.  Our  own  Presbyterian  Board 
makes  such  a rigid  investigation  as  to  the 
qualifications  of  applicants  and  insists  upon 
such  a high  standard  of  fitness  that  an  aver- 
age of  only  one  applicant  in  three  is  appointed. 
Those  whom  we  send  out  are  the  pick  of  our 
institutions  of  learning.  If  Mr.  Hamilton 
imagines  that  a man  lacking  in  charity  and 
common  sense  can  receive  a commission.  I sug- 
gest that  he  make  application  for  appointment 
and  he  will  quickly  discover  the  truth  to  his 
satisfaction,  if  not  to  his  discomfiture.  I per- 
sonally know  the  majority  of  the  Protestant 
missionaries  in  Korea.  It  is  my  business  to 
know  about  them.  I am  an  officer  of  a Board 
that  is  responsible  to  the  home  churches  for 
the  maintenance  of  a large  number  of  them. 
What  possible  motive  have  the  Boards  for 
maintaining  in  Korea  incompetent  men  and 
women?  Would  not  the  strongest  considera- 
tions of  self-interest  lead  us  promptly  to  re- 
call missionaries  who  were  guilty  of  the  things 
which  Mr.  Hamilton  alleges?  I have  no  hesita- 
tion in  setting  my  personal  knowledge  of 


18 


Korea  missionaries  and  their  work  over 
against  the  ignorance  of  Mr.  Hamilton,  colos- 
sal as  it  is,  and  I assert  that  the  Korea  mis- 
sionaries are  among  the  very  best  men  and 
women  I know,  excelling  in  character,  in  devo- 
tion and  in  self-sacrificing  labors  for  God  and 
for  man. 

WHY  DON’T  THE  MISSIONARIES 
RUN? 

The  missionaries  in  Korea  to-day  are  ex- 
posed to  no  small  anxiety  and  even  peril  in  the 
war  between  Russia  and  Japan.  A part  of  the 
region  in  which  they  reside  is  already  within 
the  zone  of  hostilities.  Everybody  is  advising 
them  to  leave  in  order  to  seek  their  personal 
safety  and  escape  the  scenes  of  ruin  and  car- 
nage which  are  imminent.  If  they  are  the 
kind  of  people  that  Mr.  Hamilton  supposes 
them  to  be,  why  do  they  not  go?  Why  is  it 
that  they  are  staying  at  the  post  of  duty? 
Many  of  them  are  in  the  interior.  They  are 
absolutely  unarmed.  They  are  forbidden  by 
their  principles  to  fight,  and  they  are  too  few 
and  too  helpless  to  do  so  even  if  they  were  dis- 
posed. It  takes  more  courage  for  them  to 
stand  their  ground  in  such  circumstances  than 
it  does  to  shoulder  a rifle  and  join  a regiment. 
Yet  they  are  staying  there  to  comfort  and 
guide  those  terror-stricken  Koreans  in  their 
time  of  sore  need.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
characterize  too  strongly  the  meanness  of  an 


19 


author  who  at  such  a time  will  attempt  to  ar- 
raign those  men  and  women  as  unworthy  of 
our  sympathy  and  support. 

Some  people,  indeed,  to  whom  the  mission- 
aries are  always  wrong,  are  criticising  them 
because  they  declined  to  leave  Pyeng  Yang 
on  the  warship  which  the  United  States  Min- 
ister had  sent  for  them.  The  engineer  who 
stays  at  the  throttle  in  time  of  peril  is  called 
a hero.  The  physician  who  refuses  to  desert 
his  cholera-stricken  patients  is  highly  praised. 
The  Roman  Catholic  priest  who  entered  the 
burning  Iroquois  Theatre  in  Chicago  to  admin- 
ister the  last  rites  to  the  dying  was  lauded  by 
the  secular  press  the  country  over.  But  the 
Protestant  missionary  who  remains  at  his  post 
of  duty,  is,  forsooth,  “ a visionary,”  “ whose 
zeal  is  eating  him  up,”  and  regarding  whom, 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Hamilton,  “ it  is  imper- 
ative that  certain  measures  should  be  adopted 
which  will  insure  the  safety  of  the  individual 
zealot  and  be  agreeable  to  the  general  com- 
fort of  the  community.”  He  sagely  adds  that 
“ these  restraints  upon  missionary  labors  will, 
of  course,  be  resented,”  but  that  “ if  we  wish 
to  avoid  another  such  manifestation  as  the 
terrible  anti-Christian  upheaval  in  China,  it  is 
necessary  to  superintend  all  forms  of  mission- 
ary enterprise  more  closely.” 

And  yet,  if  the  missionaries  had  run  away 
on  that  warship,  these  very  people  who  are 
now  criticizing  them  as  zealots  would  have 


20 


sneered  at  them  as  cowards,  and  would  have 
descanted  upon  the  superior  bravery  of  the  en- 
gineer and  the  physician  and  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic priest.  “ The  missionaries,”  rightly  re- 
marks the  editor  of  The  Banner,  “ are  in  a po- 
sition to  protect,  not  only  the  Christians,  but 
many  of  the  non-Christians  as  well.  While 
the  Japanese  officers,  and  doubtless  many  of 
the  Russian  officials,  would  deprecate  any  ill- 
treatment  of  the  natives,  yet  there  is  a large 
number  of  rough,  inconsiderate  men  in  almost 
every  army.  Reports  of  outrages  perpetrated 
on  the  Chinese  peasantry,  both  men  and 
women,  during  the  Boxer  troubles,  are  still 
fresh  in  our  minds,  and  according  to  Chinese 
accounts  the  Russian  soldiers  were  especially 
cruel.  The  poor,  ignorant  native  in  such  eases 
is  helpless.  The  chances  are  that,  even  if  he 
dared,  he  could  not  obtain  access  to  those  in 
command.  As  a rule,  few  would  dare  to  at- 
tempt it,  lest  some  worse  thing  might  happen 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  a courteous  note 
from  an  American  to  the  authorities  in  com- 
mand could  not  well  be  disregarded,  while  at 
the  same  time  all  who  could  take  refuge  on  his 
premises  would  be  fairly  free  from  molesta- 
tion. In  such  circumstances,  the  missionary's 
duty  is  plain,  and  those  in  Northern  Korea  are 
only  doing  what  any  Christian  man  of  ordi- 
nary courage  would  doubtless  do  if  in  their 
situation.” 


21 


THE  REAL  MAKER  OF  TROUBLE. 

In  view  of  Mr.  Hamilton’s  opinion  that  the 
missionaries  make  trouble  among  the  natives, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  h'is  own  conduct  in 
dealing  with  them.  He  informs  us  that  when 
the  Korean  sellers  of  curios  became  importu- 
nate, he  “ found  the  specific  cure  for  their  pes- 
tiferous attentions  to  be  administered  best  in 
the  shape  of  a little  vigorous  kicking.”  A 
sorcerer,  who  was  making  noisy  incantations 
to  exorcise  a devil,  so  aggravated  Mr.  Hamilton 
that  “ losing  my  temper  and  my  reason  alto- 
gether, I dropped  his  gongs  and  cymbals  down 
a well,  depositing  him  in  it  after  them.”  Exe- 
crating the  Koreans  for  their  laziness  and 
vice,  he  says : “ There  is,  however,  an  antidote 
for  this  state  of  things.  If  sufficient  point  be 
put  into  the  argument  and  the  demonstration 
be  further  enforced  by  an  occasional  kick  as 
customs  may  require,”  etc.  He  complains  be- 
cause, as  he  alleges,  an  American  missionary 
advised  a newlv-engaged  servant  to  leave  him. 
I lllillll  Um  missionary  deserves  credit  for  a 
good  deoil.  The  “ boy  ” was  probably  a decent 
fellow  whom  the  missionary  desired  to  save 
from  a hard  experience.  Mr.  Hamilton  takes 
his  revenge,  however,  in  the  splenetic  advice 
to  other  would-be  travelers  in  Korea  that  in 
employing  servants,  “ it  is  safer  in  every  ease 
to  take  men  who  are  not  converts.”  That  is 
false,  and  Mr.  Hamilton  either  knows  that  it 
is  false  or  he  is  culpably  ignorant  of  the  plain- 


22 


est  facts.  What  is  there  in  the  teaching  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  to  make  a man  less  reliable 
than  he  was  before?  Why  should  it  be  worse 
for  any  Korean  to  stop  worshipping  evil 
spirits  and  to  begin  worshipping  the  true  God; 
to  turn  away  from  the  intemperance,  immor- 
ality and  laziness,  which  Mr.  Hamilton  de- 
clares are  so  common,  and  become  a sober, 
moral  and  industrious  citizen?  The  Protes- 
tant Christians  in  Korea  are  the  very  best  ele- 
ment in  the  population.  Indeed  before  they 
were  pointed  out  to  me,  I could  ordinarily  tell 
them  on  the  streets  by  the  unmistakable  evi- 
dences of  superior  neatness  and  character.  In 
all  my  travels  in  Korea,  I had  no  trouble  with 
native  servants,  Christian  or  heathen,  and  I 
did  not  “ curse  ” or  “ flog  ” them  either.  Mr. 
Hamilton  continues: 

“ The  interpreter  will  suggest  that  he  re- 
quires a servant.  For  this  remark  he  should 
be  flogged.”  When  the  poor  inhabitants  of  a 
poverty-stricken  village  declined  to  sell  him 
their  scanty  stock  of  chickens,  “ the  grooms, 
the  servants  and  the  interpreter  at  once 
tackled  the  mob,  laying  about  them  with  their 
whips  . . . and  fowls  and  eggs  were  at 

once  forthcoming.”  Imagine  the  treatment 
that  an  Asiatic  traveler  would  receive  if  he 
adopted  such  methods  in  an  American  town. 

In  further  pursuit  of  this  interesting  in- 
quiry, we  find  the  following  passages  in  Mr. 
Hamilton’s  book:  “The  interpreter  ap- 


23 


proaehed  me  to  intimate  that  if  his  brother  did 
not  go  he  also  would  stay  behind.  I looked  at 
him  for  a moment,  at  last  understanding  the 
plot,  and  struck  him.  He  ran  into  the  court- 
yard and  yelled  that  he  was  dead — that  he 
had  been  murdered.  The  grooms  in  charge  of 
the  horses  gathered  round  him  with  loud  cries 
of  sympathy.”  * * “ The  head  groom  came 

up  to  me,  demanding  an  increase  of  thirty  dol- 
lars. * * I refused  the  thirty  dollars  and 

thrashed  him  with  my  whip.  The  end  of  my 
journey  for  the  moment  had  come,  with  a ven- 
geance. The  head  groom  stormed  and  cursed 
and  ran  raving  in  and  out  of  the  crowd.  He 
then  came  for  me  with  a huge  boulder,  and,  as 
I let  out  upon  his  temple,  the  riot  began.  My 
baggage  was  thrown  off  the  horses  and  stones 
flew  through  the  air.  I hit  and  slashed  at 
my  assailants  and  for  a few  minutes  became 
ihe  center  of  a very  nasty  situation.  Servants 
and  grooms,  my  interpreter,  and  a few  of  the 
spectators  went  at  it  keenly  while  the  fight 
continued.” 

After  having  thus  described  the  effect  of  his 
own  methods  upon  the  natives,  he  has  the  self- 
possession  to  arraign  missionaries  for  the 
anti-foreign  feeling  which  he  professes  to  be- 
lieve their  “ indiscretion  ” has  caused.  He 
also  vouchsafes  the  interesting  opinion  that 
“ the  practice  of  scattering  missionaries  broad- 
cast in  the  interior  of  these  Far  Eastern  coun- 
tries should  not  continue.”  But  he  is  evident- 


24 


ly  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  entirely  proper  that 
travelers  like  himself  should  be  allowed  to  go 
storming,  and  cursing,  and  fighting  through 
Asia  to  their  heart’s  content. 

After  all  that  has  been  disclosed  regarding 
the  real  causes  of  the  Boxer  outbreak  in  China, 
the  man  who  ascribes  it  to  the  missionaries 
does  so  at  the  expense  of  either  his  intelligence 
or  his  honesty.  It  is  all  too  clear  that  that 
outbreak  was  primarily  caused  by  the  political 
and  commercial  aggressions  of  Europeans.  It 
would  be  ludicrous,  if  it  were  not  so  serious  a 
matter,  to  represent  the  missionaries  in  Korea, 
who  have  to  an  extraordinary  degree  the  confi- 
dence and  the  affection  of  the  people  from  the 
Emperor  to  the  coolie,  as  a source  of  disturb- 
ance. The  Koreans  know  well  enough  who 
their  real  friends  arc,  and  they  testify  to  the 
accuracy  of  their  knowledge  by  loving  the 
missionaries,  but  by  hating  the  “ Puffsnaub- 
ers,”  and  mobbing  the  “ Wintershines,”  whom 
Mr.  Hamilton  would  probably  regard  as  con- 
genial friends  and  high  authorities. 

While  Mr.  Hamilton  makes  the  remarkable 
suggestion  that  the  activity  of  missionaries 
ought  to  be  limited  by  governmental  author- 
ity it  is  significant  that  he  does  not  propose 
that  the  activity  of  traders  should  be  so  limit- 
ed. But  I got  the  very  distinct  impression 
from  my  own  long  journey  through  Asia,  and 
conversation  and  correspondence  with  hun- 
dred of  foreigners  and  Asiatics  have  confirmed 


25 


the  impression,  that  the  foreign  trader  has 
done  ten  times  more  than  the  missionary  to 
alarm  and  irritate  the  Asiatic.  While  some 
of  those  traders  are  men  of  high  Christian 
character,  it  is  notorious  that  the  typical 
trader  in  Asia  is  brutal,  profane,  intemperate, 
lustful  and  greedy,  and  that  in  his  treatment 
of  the  natives  and  in  his  remorseless  pushing 
of  his  own  selfish  interests  he  creates  the  very 
conditions  of  hatred  and  unrest  which  Mr. 
Hamilton  ignorantly  ascribes  to  the  missionar- 
ies. Captain  Brinkley,  of  the  Japan  Mail,  is 
authority  for  the  statement  that  the  antipathy 
to  missionaries  of  the  foreign  communities  in 
the  sea  ports  of  Asia  has  absolutely  no  founda- 
tion in  justice  or  reason.  When  a traveler 
returns  from  foreign  lands  to  malign  the  best 
people  in  them,  we  may  be  tolerably  sure  that 
he  was  either  making  a fool  of  himself  so  that 
he  had  to  be  rebuked  by  the  missionaries,  or 
that  he  got  his  information  from  men  whose 
habits  gave  them  personal  reasons  for  dislik- 
ing Christian  men  and  women.  We  are  re- 
minded of  Charles  Darwin’s  blunt  statement 
that  ‘ ‘ the  foreign  travelers  and  residents 
in  the  South  Sea  Islands,  who  write  with  such 
hostility  of  missionaries,  are  men  who  find  the 
missionary  an  obstacle  to  the  accomplishment 
of  their  evil  pursuits.  ’ ’ 

Mr.  Hamilton  gives  less  than  a dozen  pages 
out  of  307  to  “ the  missionary  question,”  but 
he  has  packed  into  those  pages  more  ignorance, 


26 


misrepresentation  and  maliciousness  than  can 
be  found  in  an  equal  space  in  any  other  book 
of  my  acquaintance.  It  is  plain  that  he  knows 
practically  nothing  at  first  hand  regarding  the 
missionaries  in  Korea;  that  he  has  simply 
picked  up  the  sneers  and  slanders  current 
among  those  foreigners  who,  for  reasons  best 
known  to  themselves,  find  it  convenient  to 
slander  pure,  high-minded  men  and  women 
who  are  not  in  Korea  for  personal  aggrandize- 
ment, but  for  the  uplifting  of  an  oppressed 
people.  If  I may  adapt  the  reply  of  Ruskin  to 
one  of  his  critics — “ I do  not  know  that  even 
in  this  age  of  charlatanry,  I could  point  to  a 
more  barefaced  instance  of  imposture  on  the 
simplicity  of  the  public,  than  the  insertion  of 
these  pieces  of  criticism  in  an  apparently  re- 
spectable book.  We  are  not  insulted  with  opin- 
ions on  music  from  persons  ignorant  of  its 
notes;  nor  with  treatises  on  philology  by  per- 
sons unacquainted  with  the  alphabet;  but 
here  is  page  after  page  of  criticism,  which  one 
may  read  from  end  to  end,  looking  for  some- 
thing which  the  writer  knows,  and  finding  noth- 
ing." 


TWO  TRUSTWORTHY  BOOKS. 

Those  who  wish  to  know  what  Korea  and 
the  Koreans  really  are  should  turn  from  Mr. 
Hamilton ’s  overwrought  pages  to  Mrs.  Horace 
G.  Underwood’s  “ Fifteen  Years  Among  the 
Top-Knots,”  and  to  T)r.  James  S.  Gale’s  “ The 


37 


Vanguard.”  It  is  true  that  these  authors 
have  not  spent  any  time  at  treaty-port  hotels 
and  that  they  have  not  drawn  on  their  imagi- 
nation for  facts  to  be  sent  to  foreign  newspa- 
pers. But  they  have  lived  in  Korea  more  than 
a dozen  years.  They  know  the  language  of  the 
Koreans.  They  have  studied  the  country  and 
the  people  until  they  have  more  knowledge  of 
Korea  in  their  little  fingers  than  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton has  in  his  whole  body.  In  “ Wintershine,” 
one  of  his  characters.  Dr.  Gale  has  shown  us 
how  critics  of  the  Hamilton  type  behave  in 
Asia,  and  how  they  get  their  false  impressions 
of  missionaries.  Both  Dr.  Gale  and  Mrs.  Un- 
derwood have  written  with  inteligence  and 
sympathy.  Their  books  give  a picture  of 
Korea  of  such  vividness  and  accuracy  that  one 
feels  by  the  time  he  has  finished  them  that  he 
really  knows  something  about  the  land  of  the 
Morning  Calm.  They  have,  what  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton has  not,  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear  the 
mighty  forces  which  are  gradually  inaugurat- 
ing a new  era  in  Korea.  They  show  us  the 
real  American  missionary,  not  as  an  idle,  lux- 
urious mercenary  individual,  but  as  an  edu- 
cated, consecrated  man  or  woman,  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  highest  type  of  American  Chris- 
tian character  and  culture,  going  about  among 
those  poor  down-trodden  Koreans  in  the  name 
and  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master — healing  the 
sick,  teaching  the  young,  translating  the  Bible, 
creating  a wholesome  literature,  proclaiming 


28 


in  season  and  out  of  season,  those  great  truths 
of  the  Christian  religion  to  which  Europe  and 
America  owe  whatever  of  true  greatness  they 
possess,  and  at  the  cost  of  toil  and  pain  and 
loneliness  and  misrepresentation,  seeking  to  up- 
lift a fallen  people.  No  one  is  perfect,  not  even 
a critic,  but  the  man  who  can  write  only  evil 
of  such  men  and  women  is  not  one  whose  judg- 
ment will  be  accepted  by  sensible  people. 
Rather  will  they  give  in  more  abundant  meas- 
ure their  sympathies  and  prayers  and  gifts  to 
the  end  that  the  devoted  Korea  missionaries 
and  the  work  which  they  represent  may  be 
adequately  sustained  in  this  time  of  extraor- 
dinary demands  upon  strength  and  funds. 


DATE  DUE 


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